William Franklin

William Franklin (1730-November 1813) was the Colonial Governor of New Jersey from 1763 to 1776, succeeding Josiah Hardy and preceding William Livingston. Franklin was the acknowledged illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin, but, unlike his father, he supported Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. This caused Benjamin to be estranged from his son, who died in exile in London in 1813.

Biography
William Franklin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1730, the acknowledged illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin. He was raised by Franklin and his common law wife Deborah Read, and it is speculated that Read was indeed Franklin's unknown mother, as she would have been shamed had it been known that Franklin was born out of wedlock. He joined a company of Pennsylvania provincial troops in 1746 and fought in Albany during King George's War, obtaining the rank of Captain in 1747. In 1759, Franklin went to London to study law, and he sired his own illegitimate son there.

In 1763, Franklin and his wife moved to New Jersey, and, that same year, Prime Minister John Stuart appointed Franklin Governor of New Jersey to weaken the Penn family. He improved roads and the construction of bridges, secured crop subsidies from England, founded the colony's chancery courts, granted a charter to Rutgers, curtailed imprisonment for debt, pardoned 105 women who were jailed for adultery, hanged two Sussex county men for beheading a prisoner during Pontiac's Rebellion, and established the first Indian reservation at Brotherton in Burlington County.

The American Revolutionary War led to Benjamin Franklin being alienated from his son. Franklin had supported his father's earlier Anglophilia, was a devout Anglican, respected benevolent authority, and sought the post of Governor's salary and prerequisites. He secretly reported Patriot activities to London, and the Provincial Congress of New Jersey incarcerated him in Connecticut for two years. In 1778, he was released in a prisoner exchange and movied to occupied New York City; his wife died in Manhattan in 1777 during Franklin's imprisonment. Franklin, regarded as the leader of the loyalists, set up Loyalist units to fight the Patriots. He also supported guerrilla warfare against the Continental Army, but these plans were opposed by Henry Clinton; in 1782, he oversaw the capture of the patriot Joshua Huddy, who was later summarily executed by loyalist irregulars. That same year, he left America for London, never to return. He died in 1813, having spoken to his father only once since the war.